The Annotated Book of Mormon

For more than twenty years, Grant Hardy has dedicated much of his scholarly time and talent to producing more reader-friendly editions of the Book of Mormon than those published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition, Hardy reformatted the church's 1920 edition of the text to reflect the style and formatting of more modern editions of the Bible, eschewing its standard division of verses in favor of paragraphs, poetic stanzas, and quotations to make it more accessible to modern readers both inside and outside the LDS Church.1 In his 2018 The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition, Hardy edited the church's official 1981 edition of the text (revised in 2013) to include formatting similar to his earlier edition while also providing references to textual variants from the original and printer's manuscripts derived from Royal Skousen's Critical Text Project.2Those familiar with Hardy's 2003 and 2018 editions of the Book of Mormon may wonder whether Hardy's latest offering, The Annotated Book of Mormon, adds much to these previous publications. My answer: a great deal indeed. The Annotated edition is by far Hardy's most sophisticated attempt to date and reflects the breadth and depth of knowledge its editor has accumulated during more than twenty years of working with the text. It is also his most ambitious edition to date. The editorial introduction asserts that the Book of Mormon “is not nonsense” and affirms its position in the library of “world scripture” (vii, x).To make these points, Hardy's Annotated presents the Book of Mormon as a primary source worthy of scholarly consideration by adapting it to a format readily recognizable to scholars outside the Latter-day Saint tradition. Following the organization of recent study bibles, especially the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Hardy employs the modern text formatting of his earlier editions while adding an abundance of introductory material, scholarly commentary, and historical and literary analysis.3 Helpful introductions mark divisions of each section and book, offering content summaries, interpretation, and reading guidance. An extensive index includes maps, genealogies, timelines, a glossary of biblical and Book of Mormon terminology, indexes of names and biblical references, numerous essays by Hardy discussing various aspects of modern Book of Mormon scholarship, and an exhaustive list of further readings in many different subfields of Book of Mormon studies.One of the most notable features of this edition is its numerous footnotes. In addition to the textual variants noted in his Maxwell study edition, Hardy's references provide in-depth commentary and interpretation of the text, clarifying difficult passages and drawing attention to numerous connections of language and theology between Book of Mormon narrators. In addition, footnotes draw attention to the book's tight intertextual play with the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and highlight ideas and language unique to the Book of Mormon. Hardy points out where peculiarities of language are attributable to the King James Bible and nineteenth-century religious discourse and highlights its resonance with theological concerns of Joseph Smith's time. In these notes, Hardy demonstrates his full awareness of the various historical, ethical, and linguistic issues the Book of Mormon presents, but he deftly avoids apologetics and treats issues such as 2 Nephi 5:21’s “skin of blackness” (101–102n21) and the problem of Deutero-Isaiah in Nephi's writings (67, note on chapters 20–21) with honesty and fairness.This thorough footnoting is complemented by twelve general essays in the appendix that benefit from Hardy's many years of work and his in-depth knowledge of the relevant scholarship. Hardy approaches the Book of Mormon from several different perspectives, considering it as a literary work, an ancient artifact, a theological treatise, and a biblical counterpart. He gives thorough summaries of the book's complex relationship to modern Latter-day Saint faith and practice as well as to its nineteenth-century American origins.Hardy has previously written about the Book of Mormon's literary features and functions (most extensively in his 2010 publication Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide), and much of his expertise in this approach is displayed in this book.4 But perhaps his most novel and vital contribution in this collection is the final essay, “Reading the Book of Mormon as World Scripture.” Here, Hardy returns to his initial argument that the Book of Mormon ought to be considered world scripture and makes this case by considering the book in relation to other non-Christian holy books of prominence, such as the scriptures of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. For Hardy, such an appraisal of differences and similarities reveals much about universal spirituality and human yearnings for the divine while also highlighting the Book of Mormon's uniqueness and remarkability with respect to its history, literary features, and functions. The burden lies upon Latter-day Saints, Hardy argues, to make the book readable, interesting, and relevant to contemporary perspectives and modes of interpretation so that it might be more widely studied in academic and ecumenical circles.While the Book of Mormon's status as world scripture may still be up for debate, Hardy's multidimensional approach has successfully endowed it with a new level of intellectual heft, impressing upon his reader the profound complexity of the Mormon scripture and its great potential as the object of future academic inquiry. Unfortunately, the publisher did not see fit to give the text a quality binding that will accommodate the kind of serious study this edition merits. I have two hardcover copies, and the bindings broke and began to unravel after the first few openings. Perhaps the publisher will see fit to do better in the next printing.